Teaching In Thailand

[Ijustwannateach]

Here are some extracts from an education forum I visit based on the American system:

I was hoping to move to another state last summer, where I also hold a teaching credential. There is a principal in that state interested in hiring me. Not this year, though, because the districts in that area 1. Cut the school year to save $$, by cutting the number of days in teachers' contracts and the number of days classified employees work; 2. Raising class sizes to avoid having to hire any new teachers. This was an effort to avoid teacher lay-offs.

In my own district, I have 32 students. My copy budget has been cut in half, I get no field trips, and my supply budget is laughable. We laid off all of the assistant principals, and are running our district on a skeleton crew at the district office; this part from last year. How does the district keep running? Classroom teachers sit on district committees that run programs and departments over at the D.O. in addition to their full-time teaching job. So do principals; we expect to have an administrator on campus for a couple of days a week this year, and we've been directed bluntly that we are not to send anyone to the office; no discipline referrals for any reason. All discipline must be handled in the classroom.

All of those district committees are in addition to the site committees that we are expected to participate in. Today will be our 13th day of school this year. So far, we have been pressured to tutor large groups of students before and after school, coach the sports teams, and join some of eight other committees just on our school site.

I spend a minimum of 10 hours a day, every day, on my "real" job. That is just to plan, prepare materials, grade papers, take care of bulletin boards, and all of the other paper-work related things that go with the job in addition to instructional time; when students are on campus, my only duty-free period is a 30 minute lunch. When you add staff meetings and parent conferences, etc., to the mix, it goes longer than 10 hours a day.

Where am I supposed to find the hours to sit on all of these committees? I did it last year, and ended up, by the end of the year, in a state of extreme exhaustion. I spent my summer "vacation" in doctors' offices dealing with health issues triggered by overwork and overstress, and physically unable to do many of the things I'd planned for time off. This year I said "no." No to all committees and extra duties. I backed it up with medical evidence, and it was reluctantly accepted. If I couldn't back it up, or if I tried it for more than one year, I'd find myself on the admin "hit list."

In reality, if I sat on all the committees and did all of the before and after school programs they're pressuring us for, I wouldn't need to have a class. I could spend 8 hours a day just doing those things; easily.

I'm in elementary school. Our district has cut the top and the bottom of of the teaching pool. The top teachers were credentialed under previous requirements that don't fit the new "highly qualified" criteria. That doesn't mean that they aren't highly qualified; just that they didn't take the specific tests or courses required by NCLB. So they aren't offered a contract for the following school year, because they haven't met the new criteria. In the past, whenever credentialing requirements changed, anybody with a previous credential was "grandfathered" in. Not any more. Teachers who earned "lifetime" credentials are finding out that they aren't good for a lifetime, after all. People who got a liberal arts degree and waiver from subject matter testing are finding that their waiver is no longer in force. So many teachers at the top of the chain, with 10 or 15 or 20 years worth of experience, are not invited back. Teachers at the bottom of the chain, those with emergency credentials so that they work while they finish all of the requirements, are also not invited back this year. That leaves those of us who came in recently enough to have to take batteries of tests to prove subject matter competency, those who didn't take the liberal arts waiver, or those brand new credentials that jumped through all the hoops before the new requirements weeded them out.

People often comment on these forums about their long range worries regarding teaching in Thailand- pensions, benefits, qualifications, etc. In light of these comments, boy am I glad that I'm teaching here- even if the absolute pay is not as high and the visa situation is a pain.

Comments?

"Steven"

[PeaceBlondie]

Teaching 31 'seventh graders' in the provinces is a breeze compared to working in one of the inner cities of the USA, where you don't even get combat pay. On a field trip to Pattaya last year, I phoned my daughter (who teaches chemistry to 10th graders in a gifted and talented program in a good district in Texas) and bragged, "Ha, Ha! My 12 year olds are better behaved than your 16 year old geniuses and artists!"

[Ajarn]

Teaching 31 'seventh graders' in the provinces is a breeze compared to working in one of the inner cities of the USA, where you don't even get combat pay. On a field trip to Pattaya last year, I phoned my daughter (who teaches chemistry to 10th graders in a gifted and talented program in a good district in Texas) and bragged, "Ha, Ha! My 12 year olds are better behaved than your 16 year old geniuses and artists!"

I hear ya'....At Balboa H.S., where I taught Sociology and History, we had armed guards patroling the halls- thank god.

I wasn't my main reason for moving to Thailand, but it sure could have been